It's Back! - I-405 Widening Is Resurrected!

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE...

Very late Friday afternoon the wonderful folks at the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) issued a press release, HERE, that announced the resurrection of the I-405 Freeway widening project.


QUIETLY DREDGING IT UP AGAIN
Some will recall that we thought that beast had been given a sedative and was now peacefully resting as a "Wisdom of Solomon" kind of solution - nobody in particular was happy with it entirely, but it was acceptable.

AH, POLITICS...
Then, a funny thing happened.  In November there were elections and the result was a whole bunch of new faces on the OCTA Board and apparently some of those folks decided to go back on the decision of the previous board and dredge up the hated High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane as part of the plan.  And, of course, there's all that potential toll road income just sitting there, waiting to be snatched from the pockets of already beleaguered commuters...

START HERE TO MAKE YOUR BLOOD BOIL
You can go HERE for the project overview.  When you reach that page scroll way down near the bottom for the two NEW alternatives being suggested.  The first one, Concept A, retains the earlier Alternate 2 footprint, but converts the existing carpool lane into the dreaded HOT lane.

MAYBE THIS ONE?
The second one, Concept B, also retains the Alternate 2 footprint, but truncates one lane further north on the route.

WHERE'S THE PUBLIC OUTREACH?
It's interesting that no mention is made of any type of public outreach.  When this scheme was first proposed there were meetings all over the corridor cities.  No mention of any meetings yet and the clock is ticking on the deadline for submitting comments on this plan.  And, of course, the timing of this release is fascinating - the weekend before a long, long Independence Day holiday weekend.

READ IT AND WEEP
You can read a brief summary of the current scheme HERE, and read the entire DEIR/EIS - a couple hundred pages - HERE.